Why Finance?

I was chatting with some of my colleagues about why I am so intrigued by finance and why I would want to spend all my free time devouring everything I can find on economics and finance–well part of it is that I am inherently greedy and materialistic (Madonna’s Material Girl was my theme song when I was younger), but part of it also has to do with my circumstances. Let me explain.

When I first started my blog I wanted to write about stuff I knew about–knowledge I thought I could share with the world and help people learn from my mistakes and my triumphs. Which is why, if you read this blog here, you will see some of my opinions and advice have changed a quite a bit (the more I learn the more perspective I have on things and it makes me realize decisions are not always black and white). Lately my blog has been really focused on documenting the things I learn and my progress. I thoroughly enjoy reading about the markets and the economy–it is fascinating. And I am even hoping to one day work in finance (perhaps when my career at Delve, the greatest company in the world, is all said and done), ideally at one of the top hedge funds (since that is where the smartest people seem to be working).

Anyhow, I recently started helping one Garrett and some of my friends with their finances. I put together a graph for our crossover point (the point at which the interest on your savings exceeds your income, adjusted for inflation). It was amazing the differences in which 8% vs. 10% vs. 12% could make on the year you could retire. So of course I started to think, how does someone without millions of dollars make the most interest on their money? I consider myself much smarter than most of the financial advisers that handle clients with my kind of capital (and I have a strong aversion to pay one of those people to manage my finances). There are high interest savings accounts but they only earn about 3%; index fund can do about 7%–but what if you only have $10,000 or $20,000 or more and you want to see 12% or more interest on your money?

The answer to that question, as well as just trying to be more savvy about my finances and planning is what started my foray into finance. Now it is my obsession. I have traded my reality TV shows for CNBC and Bloomberg. I read as much as I can, learning everything I come across. I would love to be able to do this for my full time job, but I love my current job, so maybe I will move into finance next 🙂

I think it would be a great idea if someone put together a fund for normal people to be able to invest in a hedge fund (or other high risk, high return investment vehicle) by pooling their money, but until then I am still researching and trying out new things. Feel free to offer me any tips and tricks you might have 🙂

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about me

Kate is known as one of the top technology leaders and CTOs. Her technical background is in creating and operating large-scale web applications. Her focus has primarily rested on SaaS applications and big data. She has extensive experience building and managing high-performance teams, and considers herself a fan of agile development practices and the lean startup movement. She is currently founding her own startup, popforms, but has held roles as developer, project manager, product manager, and people manager at great companies including Amazon and Microsoft. The last seven years she has been a VP of Engineering/CTO for companies like Moz, Decide (acquired by eBay), and Delve Networks (acquired by Limelight).
Kate is a keynote speaker, and she is also the curator of the Technology and Leadership Newsletter (TLN - www.techleadershipnews.com) and has a personal blog at katemats.com.